Katherine's Journey
by selenaxo
Summary: When Katherine was finally free from Klaus' reach, she headed straight for New York. But when her car breaks down 110 miles south in Pennsylvania, she is more than unhappy to find herself in a tiny town, forced to attend high school. But, unexpectedly, she begins to fall for an incredible girl, and her whole life begins to change when her past catches up with her. Katherine/OC
1. Breakdown

**_Important A/N Please Read:_**** So you all probably remember that super long gap in the show when Katherine wasn't on the show at all. Just a refresher, she disappeared after the episode in the third season _Homecoming _to run away from Klaus as far away as possible and be free and on her own, and didn't come back until the episode in the fourth season _Down the rabbit hole, _when she came to the island to feed Jeremy to Silas, which killed him. She was gon for like, 24 episodes! :0 Well, they never really explained what had happened to her while she was gone, so I am giving you my take on what happened. Please enjoy!**

* * *

_"Charlotte! Where are you?! What are you freaks doing to her?! Charlotte!"_

Katherine Pierce could feel herself screeching her name as she felt the vervain slowly seep into her system. She wasn't sure how much longer she could stay conscious and continue screaming her name. She was about to lose the one thing she loved, even more than herself, in the entire world.

"Shut up, you stupid, brunette bitch," she heard the woman mutter into her ear behind her, suddenly grabbing Katherine by her hair. "Your little Charlotte is going to be _just fine."_

Katherine barely had enough energy to respond- the vervain was affecting her quickly. "I'll kill you, and you're little pack of jerks, too," she muttered weakly.

Letting go of Katherine's dark hair, she sauntered away, chuckling. "Okay, _Katerina._ Whatever you say."

Katherine struggled to get out of the vervain-soaked ropes that tied her up, but it was no use. She had developed a tolerance for vervain over the many years of being alive, but nothing strong enough to tolerate _this._

No matter what happened, she wasn't going to let anything happen to the one of the only things that mattered in her life. Even if she had to _die _to make sure it happened.

* * *

**3 months ago**

Katherine reached over and turned up the volume of the radio on the dashboard. She chuckled, thoroughly enjoying the window rolled down, the wind whipping through her hair and being _free. _After all of those years, hiding from Klaus and trying to deal with her... _emotions _for Stefan, she finally felt like she had nothing to worry about.

_Breakaway _by Kelly Clarkson was blasting over the radio. The road slowly began to change from vastly open, to the occasional tree, to a sparse forest. Katherine began to nibble on her fingernail, a smile escaping from her lips. She didn't have anywhere to be, anything to do. All she cared about was driving in her old, light gray Chevy Impala she had recently stolen from some guy in Maryland that was selling old cars. He was so old himself, he barely realized what was going on when Katherine turned the key in the ignition and drove away, leaving her other, much uglier car behind in the parking lot.

But Maryland was far behind her. She had left it in her review mirror a while ago, and smiled bigger as she passed the green sign.

NEW YORK: 110 MILES

She was sick and tired of tiny towns, like Mystic Falls. They were boring and usually had the biggest population of vampires. Katherine liked being unique, and in Mystic Falls she felt like she was suffocating under the piles of local vampires. So she wanted to go somewhere populated, somewhere incredible, somewhere _exciting. _Somewhere where she'd be the only vampire. San Francisco was her first choice, but she didn't want to drive that far. So she took her second choice- Manhattan, New York City. Everything she had heard about it sounded magical, and she seriously needed to see it for herself. She sighed, so lost in thought she barely noticed that the sparse forest she had been driving in had quickly become dense, lush, and incredibly green.

Katherine frowned as the car, suddenly lurching forward, awoke her from her thoughts. It began to slow down, and flung her forward a few more times. She heard a loud pop somewhere from the front of the car and, to Katherine's horror, her car stalled and ran out of gas.

Katherine threw her head back and let out a groan. "This is _not _happening," she whined. She was so close, but without a properly functioning car, it was going to make everything more complicated. She took out her phone, but to her complete dismay she didn't have a single ounce of cell reception. As she stepped out of the car and slammed the door angrily, she began to consider her options. She could run all of the way to New York, leaving the car behind in the middle of the road. 110 miles wasn't so bad for a vampire, especially when running at full speed. Besides, if what she heard about Manhattan was true, she wouldn't really be needing a car anyway. On the other hand, she didn't want to leave such a cool and beautiful car behind. She had become quite attached to the old thing. Katherine walked over to the hood of the car, her heels clicking on the hard road. A breeze tousled her dark, curly locks, and rustled through the lush green trees that seemed to swallow everything around her. She had entered such a dense forest she could barely see the cloudy sky above. Gingerly opening the hood, she pouted. She didn't know the first thing about running a car. Driving them was the limit to her knowledge. She stood there, staring at the inner workings of the car for a good 15 minutes before seriously considering pushing the car all of the way to New York.

She felt her ears perk up slightly as she heard a soft noise, somewhere far in the distance that her vampire super-hearing was picking up. It was the sound of a car, slowly making its way in the direction she was standing. Katherine said a silent thanks as she breathed out in relief. She waited the few minutes it took until finally the rusty white pickup truck was in her view. As the truck got closer, she waved them down.

"Getting help from a human," she muttered to herself, cocking her head to the side. "This is _definitely_ a new low for you, Katherine."

The girl driving the truck was young, maybe 18 or so. She looked around the age Katherine looked when she died all those years ago (and how she still looks now). She slowly pulled her sputtering car over to the side just behind Katherine's and turned of the engine. She got out of the car and closed the door.

"Having car issues?" she asked as she walked over. She was a couple inches shorter than Katherine (but, in this case, the girl was many inches shorter, because Katherine's heels caused her to tower over the other girl) and she wore black high top converse, baggy ripped jeans and a gray tank top. Her hair was very long and dark at the roots, but quickly became sandy blonde as it traveled down to the tips, almost in a sudden ombre effect, where most of the hair is dyed sandy-blonde.

Katherine smirked. "You could say that," she said smartly.

She walked over to the open hood of the light gray car, bending over to look into it. "What's the problem?"

"Ran out of gas," she said in an obvious tone. "_Duh_."

The girl looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "I... was just asking."

Katherine scoffed. "And I was just telling."

The girl straightened up, crossing her arms and scowling. "Do you want me to help you with your car or not? Because you're kind of making me wish I hadn't of pulled over to help you."

It was Katherine's turn to scowl. "Look. I already _know _the problem. I just need gas. And I need you to get me some."

The girl chuckled sarcastically, going back to leaning over the open car hood. "Maybe if you asked nicely, and told me your name, I would think about it."

Katherine sighed, walking over to the girl and standing next to her, putting her nimble fingers to her forehead in distress. "You're right, you're right, I'm sorry. I'm just pissed. I'm, like, 100 miles away from my destination."

The girl smiled looking over at her. "It's alright. I get it." She began moving and fixing something inside of Katherine's car. "Let me guess- you're finally free from wherever you came from, probably some small town down farther south, and you want to forget high school, _and_ you're heading straight for Manhattan for a fresh start?"

Katherine smiled. "You're good," she said. _But I think I won't mention that you left out the part about how the reason I'm running is because an ageless vampire-werewolf hybrid bastard has been hunting me for over 500 years and my annoying doppleganger bitch Elena stole away the guy that was in love with me first._

She turned her body towards Katherine, putting her hands on her hips. "And your name is..." She put a finger to her chin, looking up. "I'm going to go with... Sofia."

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "_Sofia?" _she laughed. "That's not even close!" Katherine liked this girl. She was humorous and light, but also seemed like she had a whole backstory that made her even more interesting and exciting.

She continued guessing. "Maybe... Haley? Or Tamara?" She suddenly snapped, her eyes widening along with her smile. "Samantha! You _totally_ look like a Samantha! But you'd go by Sam, just to make yourself sound more badass than you already look."_  
_

Katherine chuckled deeply. She liked that last part. "Katherine," she said. "My name is Katherine."

She nodded, her sandy hair moving with her head. "Yeah, yeah, I can definitely see that," she replied. Her eyes widened once again. "Can I call you Katie?"

Katherine gave her a fake scowl. "No way in hell," she hissed.

She laughed. Katherine watched as her freckled nose crinkled, and the dim, cloudy light danced in her hazel eyes. She stuck out her hand, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear with her other hand.

"Nice to meet you, Katherine. I'm Charlotte. Welcome to Pennsylvania."

* * *

**Please review and tell me what you think so far! I really appreciate reviews so I know if I should continue or not :)**


	2. Willowbrooke

**Happy New Years Eve, everyone :) 2014, here we come!**

* * *

"So," Charlotte said, breaking the small period of silence. Her hands were firmly gripping the leather steering wheel of her pickup truck as she drove along the road. "Are you sure you don't want me to just drive you to New York? I don't mind."

Katherine sighed. She was so tempted to say yes. But she really didn't want to leave that car. "No," she replied hesitantly. "I can't leave my car. I just can't."

Charlotte smiled. "I understand. I could never leave this car behind, either. I've had it since I was 12."

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "You drove when you were 12?"

Charlotte glanced over at the brunette and smirked, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Our town's policemen are a bit… lazy. And no one really seems to care much about the law anymore, either. Except when it comes to something really serious, like murder, or skipping school. Stuff like that."

"Wait," Katherine said, her eyebrows knit in confusion. "Did you just compare the seriousness of murder to _skipping school?_" Katherine chuckled. "In Mystic Falls, teenagers skipping school is as common as… oxygen." _Although, murder seems to be abnormally common in Mystic Falls, too. _Katherine decided not to say that.

Charlotte giggled. "Are you kidding? If you don't attend elementary, middle or high school in our town, they will beat your ass to pieces. Parties, drinking, and driving under age? They could care less about that. But if you don't go to school…" She sighed, her eyes flicking over to Katherine again. "I guess you could say our town seriously values getting education."

Katherine could tell there was something Charlotte wasn't telling her, but she decided not to ask. It was obviously a sensitive topic. She watched as the shorter girl quickly tried to change the subject.

"So, you said you're from Mystic Falls?" she asked. "Where's that, Georgia or something?"

"Virginia," the brunette corrected. "It's small as hell and everyone knows just about everyone."

"I'm afraid Willowbrooke is basically the same way," she sighed. She looked at Katherine up and down, pouring her hazel eyes over her image, then quickly looked back at the road. "Does your school really allow you to go like that?"

Katherine opened her mouth to tell her she didn't go to school, but quickly shut it, realizing she did look not a day over 18 and technically should still be a 12th grader. She looked down at her black leather jacket and her black skinny jeans with silvery zippers on the side, her 6-inch heels glinting in the dimmed, cloudy light. "What?" she asked. "What's wrong with this outfit?"

Charlotte laughed. "You obviously have a lot to learn about my town. If you're caught dead in those ridiculous heels and that fancy jacket you're going to stick out immediately. Everyone's going to know you're not a Willowbrooke resident."

Katherine shrugged. "I don't see what's wrong with that." _I look sexy as hell and that's all that matters._

Charlotte frowned. "Trust me. You don't want to be seen as an outsider. Our town almost never gets them, and ever since… the incident… they haven't been quite fond of tourists. I try to convince them to get over it but they no one ever listens to me."

Katherine tried to not ask about the 'incident' part of the sentence and ask other questions. "Why not?"

"Because I'm different. Basically the whole town knows me and thinks I'm weird because I believe in different things and think differently from everyone. I think we should allow anyone who wants to stay in our town to stay in our town. Everyone else thinks otherwise."

_A stranger must have come into their town and done something bad enough to make them afraid of them, _Katherine thought. She shook her head slightly. _But since when did I care about these stupid things? For all I care they can deal with their own shit. My goal is getting gas to go to Manhattan and nothing is going to stop me._ _I can't believe how disgustingly nice I've been over the past half hour._

What Katherine didn't know is that what would change her mind, and her life, was sitting in the drivers seat of the truck.

* * *

Katherine scoffed. "I am _so _not changing into these hideous clothes. Seriously, get a better wardrobe." She tossed the blue jeans and the black v-neck in Charlotte's direction.

They had just passed a sign that read WELCOME TO WILLOWBROOKE, Pop. 6,123. Katherine could just begin to see the town ahead.

"Besides, I have nowhere to change, unless you want me to strip right here in the passengers seat."

Katherine could have sworn she saw Charlotte's cheeks ever so slightly turn red. She gave what sounded like a fake laugh. "No," Charlotte sneered, narrowing her eyes. "Of course not."

Katherine raised an eyebrow suspiciously, then mouthed 'okay…' to herself. "Then what the fuck do you want me to do?"

"Oh, yeah, another thing. I know this might be hard, but try not to swear. You'll totally stick out if you swear. They'll know you're not from here immediately." She shook her head. "Don't worry, I have a super hard time with it, too."

Katherine growled. "Why am I even doing this anyway? I just need to get gas and get back to my car. Can't I just wear my normal clothes for that? I'm going to be here for, like, an hour. Tops."

"Look, I'm really trying to help you here," she said. "But they're really not going to like me bringing an outsider into their town. People will freak out. Especially my dad, if he even sees you. You won't have enough time to get gas at all before the get the torches and pitchforks."

"Okay," Katherine began, "I can't take it anymore. What happened here that was so horrible?! What is 'the incident' you talked about earlier?" Katherine made air-quotes around the word 'incident.'

Charlotte scowled. "Just don't ask, alright? If you're only staying in this town for an hour, you don't deserve to know."

Katherine almost felt… offended. And she wasn't sure why. Some human's slightly harsh words shouldn't affect her like that. After all, she was Katherine Pierce. So much worse had been said to her in way nastier tones. She sighed, grabbing the clothes from Charlotte's lap. They were approaching the town quickly—the first house was already in view. "I'm only doing this for the gasoline for my Impala," she muttered as she took off her jacket and her sequence-lined tank top, then quickly (but not too quickly, or she could accidentally go into vampire speed) putting on the v-neck. Struggling to take off her pants, even with her incredible strength, she moaned in frustration. After she was done changing, she looked at Charlotte. "Better?" she said in a bitchy tone. She could tell Charlotte was watching her from the corner of her eye.

"Y-Yeah," she stuttered, clearing her throat. "Maybe if your tied back your hair it would look even better."

Katherine did as she said, pulling back her long, dark ringlets. By the time she was done with this, Charlotte had pulled into a gas station. "What about my shoes?" Katherine asked.

"Just go barefoot," replied Charlotte, putting the truck in park.

Katherine gasped. "People in this town would more likely wear no shoes than heels?!" She sneered. "Where the hell am I?" she muttered inaudibly to herself, before taking off her shoes, getting out of the car and slamming the door shut. She was about to have the experience of a lifetime.


	3. Caught

"Can I help you?" the man with the pot-belly and scraggly gray beard said behind the counter. His voice sounded like it had been in a blender with a bag of gravel and nails, and Katherine winced at the ugly sound.

"Um... yes," Katherine began, her face filled with a look of disgust. "I would like to buy a full container of gasoline."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why can't you fill it up outside?" he growled.

"My car broke down about 3 miles from here. I need to get gas over to it. Can you get me some or not?" Katherine was beginning to get impatient. She really didn't want to have to hurt anyone, especially in front of someone who seemed to actually like her.

He grunted. "All right. Is 6 gallons enough?" he asked, rummaging through a shelf behind the counter.

Just as Katherine was about to reply, she felt Charlotte grab her arm. She squeezed it with lots of strength, and if she was human she would have cried out in pain. She turned towards Charlotte. "What is it?!" she snapped. Charlotte was staring wide-eyed somewhere near the entrance. Katherine turned around.

"No, no, no, no," repeated Charlotte quietly. "Katherine, this isn't good."

A middle-aged man had just walked in and seemed to notice her and Charlotte. He was forcefully walking right towards them, and his face showed a mixture of anger and disappointment.

"Charlotte!" he exclaimed. She let go of Katherine's arm as the man came storming up to them. "What are you doing here? It's half past 11 on a Thursday! You and your friend should be at school right now!"

Charlotte opened her mouth to reply. "I-"

"Save it," he grunted. "I don't have time for your lame excuses. I'm walking you and this other young girl right back to your school and you are both going to apologize to your Principal for skipping classes!" He looked over at Katherine with a quizzical look. "I don't recognize you. You're name is...?"

"Doesn't matter," Katherine hissed, her arms crossed and eyes narrowed.

He looked over at Charlotte again, ignoring her sassy remark, although he was obviously affected by it. "I can't believe you. This is the third time this month!" He reached out for her arm and grasped it firmly.

"Dad!" she squealed as he grabbed it. "Stop! You're hurting me!"

_This jerk is her Dad? _Katherine thought. _That's gotta suck big time. _Katherine was not interested in being escorted to go to a school she didn't even attend. She thought about attacking him and draining his blood (she was hungry for some fresh blood anyway) but this was Charlotte's father. She couldn't just kill him, especially not right in front of her. Rolling her eyes at her newly established soft spot for this girl, she decided to go with her other option. She locked eyes with Charlotte's father.

"Let her go and forget this happened," she said, feeling her pupils contract and expand. She had gotten quite good at compulsion over the 500 years of being a vampire.

He looked at her with a confused look. "Wh-What? Why would I do that?" He grabbed Katherine's arm as well. "Come on, you two. We're going straight to school and telling your principal. Hopefully she'll give you a punishment you deserve."

Katherine was shocked. So shocked, she let the man pull her out of the gas station without a fight. How could he have not been affected by the compulsion? As she and Charlotte were being dragged towards the gas station door and out into the town, Katherine mulled over the possible instances.

There were only three possibilities that could be true in this situation. Possibility number one: he was a vampire. Katherine looked at the tall, dark-haired man with doubt. There was just no way. She didn't see any rings or any sort of necklace, bracelet, or even a watch on him that would suggest he was a vampire, walking in the sun with the help of enchanted jewelry just like Katherine was. Besides, he was too weak. Although his grip on her arm was strong, she could tell she could easily knock this man over and quickly overpower him. So she went onto possibility number two and three: either he had knowledge of vampires and had vervain in his system or somewhere on his body, or someone (or it could be multiple people) in this town was protecting him from them, and he was consuming vervain without his knowledge of doing so. All of these instances lead to the possibility of Katherine being dead in the next few days, and she did not like the sound of that. She really didn't want another small-town, vampire-infested experience.

"I've got to get out of here," Katherine murmured to herself inaudibly. But something was keeping her from ripping her arm from the man's firm grip and fleeing away from this godforsaken town as fast as she could, and she wasn't sure what. But what she did know was that she was most definitely not going to take the chance of running away at this point in time, because she didn't know anything about this town or Charlotte's father at all. What if he was a vampire hunter, and staked her through the heart the second she tried to get away? So she decided to play along with everything that was happening, and pretend to be who Charlotte's father (and the rest of the town that had seen her so far) thought she was- a 12th grader skipping classes. Just until she could safely get away from this place.

As they walked down the sidewalk towards the big school building that read 'Willowbrooke High School', people seemed to recognize Charlotte and shake their heads or give her disapproving looks, like this was totally common for her. Well, he did say this was the third time this month that she had skipped school. Katherine smiled a little, looking over at the hazel-eyed teenager. Charlotte was definitely her kind of girl.

But there was definitely something weird going on in this town that Katherine didn't like. At all. A she looked around the town before entering the high school building, she wondered how long she was going to be stuck here and hoped she would be in Manhattan soon.


	4. Suspicion

"Charlotte, this is the last time I ever want to see you back in this office!"

The principal of this school may have been a bitch, but Katherine had to admit she was kinda... _hot_. Her hair was long and brown, pulled back into a ponytail. She couldn't be more than in her late twenties. Her formal skirt and flowy shirt were sort of revealing and...

Katherine shook her head. What the hell was she doing? She had checked out plenty of guys before, but... girls? This was new. She cleared the sudden confusion out of her head and continued to scowl, crossing her arms.

"Principal Ferris, I can explain," Charlotte began. She opened her mouth to speak again, but nothing came out except for a drawn out, "I... Uhhh..."

The principal sneered. "There is _no_ excuse you can tell me this time. I've heard enough from you." She looked over at Katherine, raising an eyebrow.

"And who exactly might you be?" she asked. "I don't think I've ever seen you here before." She tilted her head. "Do you... even go to this school?"

There was a long pause as Katherine quickly decided what she was going to do. "Yeah," she lied, saying the word forcefully and with confidence. "Of course I go here." She noticed Charlotte shift uncomfortably out of the corner of her eye.

The Principal scrunched her face with uncertainty. "For some reason I don't believe you. I have never seen you before _ever._"

_Great, _Katherine thought. _Now the spotlight's off of Charlotte and focused directly on me._

Katherine was tempted to use compulsion, but remembering what happened last time with Charlotte's dad, she decided not to. Besides, even if it did work, it would look really weird in front of Charlotte, and she might have questions Katherine wouldn't be able to answer.

Principal Ferris opened her laptop after Katherine didn't respond to her previous statement. "I didn't want to have to do this, but I'm going to have to check the school records and make sure you really are a student here. What's your name?"

A rare feeling of panic coursed through her veins. "Um... Katherine," she said.

There was a sudden pause, and Katherine heard the principals pulse double in speed with her vampire hearing. Her eyes widened ever so slightly, and she suddenly looked sort of nervous. Katherine found this sort of strange, but absentmindedly assumed it was nothing. The sounds of clicking keys buzzed through her ears, with the words, "And you last name?" following it. The words came out a bit shakily.

"Pierce." _Did I really just give out my real name? _she thought. _This town is turning me into a full-blown idiot. My name is not going to be on there._

Principal Ferris dramatically hit ENTER, and a strange look crossed her face. It looked like she was trying to fake a surprised look, but she was doing terribly at it. "Well," she said wistfully. "I guess I was wrong. Your name is right here. I apologize for not recognizing you, Ms. Pierce."

Shock filled Katherine's limbs. _What the hell? My name was on there?! I've never been to this school in my entire life! _Katherine tried to keep her panic on the inside and stay calm. "Whatever," she grumbled and rolled her eyes, pretending like it was no big deal.

The Principal pointed at Charlotte. "You," she said. "I'll come to you and give you your punishment later today." She straightened her back and crossed her fingers. "You may both go to your classes. I better not see either of you in my office again, or we're going to have a problem."

The two teenagers nodded curtly, stood up and briskly walked out of her office. As they closed the door, Charlotte immediately turned towards Katherine, confusion clouding her usually crystal-clear hazel eyes.

"Why was your name actually on the registry?! You told me you've never been here before!"

"I am just as confused as you are," Katherine said in a calmer tone. "I-I have no clue why my name was on there. It doesn't make any sense at _all_." That whole experience was so strange. Why did the principal seem almost _scared_ when she heard Katherine's name?

Charlotte scrunched her face and crossed her eyes. "Maybe... there's another Katherine Pierce at this school? Like its some huge coincidence or something?"

"Yeah," Katherine said, although she knew this wasn't the case at all. "Maybe."

First the resistance against compulsion, and now... this? Something _seriously_ strange was going on here. After trying to compel Charlotte's dad, she wanted to get out of there as fast as she possibly could. But now, Katherine was curious. Why was her name in the school's records, like she actually went to this school in a town she had never even heard of?

Charlotte, although obviously feeling conflicting emotions, shrugged. "At least it was a _good _freakish coincidence..." she said warily. She looked back at Katherine. "You're _sure _you've never been here before?"

Katherine nodded sternly. "Yeah," she said. "I'm sure."

Charlotte took Katherine by the wrist. "Come on," she said, dragging Katherine behind her. "Since we don't know what your classes are... or, honestly, if you even have a schedule at all... I'll just take you to all my classes." She stopped outside a closed door with the words _Room 308_ painted on the translucent glass. She turned to Katherine, facing her and looking into her dark brown eyes. "We'll get you gas after school and you can get the hell out of here, I promise. I'm really sorry you got dragged into this..."

"Don't be," Katherine interrupted. "It isn't your fault." Once again, Katherine found herself asking why she was being so nice to this hazel-eyed girl. She was spending her freedom from Klaus in _high school _because of her. She had never even been to high school before (they didn't exactly have high school in the year 1490), and she was _not_ interested in trying it for the first time. She could easily ditch Charlotte right now and find another car to drive to Manhattan. So why didn't she?

Charlotte inhaled deeply. "Here goes nothing," she murmured. "Be prepared for an angry History teacher." She turned the shiny door handle and the door swung out, revealing rows of desks, bored teenagers, and a tall, dark-haired man writing on a white board. All eyes turned to the both of them.

A disappointed sigh came from the teacher. He slowly closed his dark eyes. "Charlotte," he said. "Welcome. I'm glad you decided to finally show up. I hope your self-appointed half-day off was _enjoyable _enough for you."

Some of the nerdy boys in the back snickered, and the rest of the class had smirks plastered to their face, dripping with judgement. Charlotte's cheeks turned the color of cherries.

"Mr. Pickett, I-"

His face hardened. "Please. Spare your ridiculous excuses. Please go sit down and participate in the class, and if it happens again you can be sure that your final grade will consist of the sixth letter of the alphabet."

_Whoa. This guy has a total attitude problem, _thought Katherine. _Can't a teenager skip a day or two every once in a while?_ Katherine thought about how the kids in Mystic Falls seemed to never be at school. This was obviously different.

Charlotte glanced sheepishly over at Katherine before making her way towards her empty desk. Katherine kept up her cold, dark stature and crossed her arms to make herself seem threatening. The teacher looked over at her, a mixture between confusion and intimidation clouding his dark eyes. "Can I help you?" he said, walking over towards her.

"I'm new," Katherine hissed.

He tilted his head slightly. "I-I was not informed about a new student in my class. Are you sure you are in the right classroom?"

She scowled, leaning in a little bit. "Positive." Being intimidating and mysterious was kind of her style. Sort of like a trademark. She had tried to keep it up around Charlotte, but it was as if the ability completely melted inside of her whenever she tried.

Why was she so different from everyone else?

He gave her a weird look. "Alright. Let me check the roster." He walked a few steps over to the desk, Katherine following close behind. He clicked and typed onto his computer, opening the list and flicking his eyes over it. He looked up at her, frowning.

"I don't see a Katherine on this list," he sighed warily. He looked shaky and... was that fear crossing his face? Something wasn't right, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it... Katherine shrugged off the feeling and assumed her intimidation was why he looked like he was seasick.

Mr. Pickett began to reach for the phone. "I think you may be in the wrong class. I'm going to call-"

He was cut off. Katherine had locked eyes with him. She felt her pupils contract and expand.

"Check. The list. Again," Katherine grumbled softly. She hoped the compulsion worked this time, unlike last time with Charlotte's dad.

Katherine was hopeful when the dazed-looking History teacher redirected his eyes back onto his computer. He shook his head slightly, then chuckled a little. "Would you look at that," he said. "I must've missed it. My apologies. Please take a seat wherever you'd like, Katherine."

Katherine flashed him a fake, sarcastic smile. "Thanks," she said in a voice very unlike and much higher than her own deeper voice. The second she turned around she felt the scowl creep back onto her face as she made her way to the empty desk near the back and right behind Charlotte. She sat down, slouching in her chair. The teacher continued to lecture about the 16th president, and she just began to settle in...

Katherine's eyes widened to the size of golf balls as a heart-stopping realization hit her like an oncoming train. She bit her lip to keep herself from inhaling sharply.

She had never told the teacher her name.


End file.
